The Fixer. Check out Ari Berman's report on the alleged role of now deputy attorney general Paul McNulty in suppressing a DOJ report that would have been damaging to clients of Jack Abramoff:

... In May 2002 Abramoff used his influence to kill a risk-assessment report of Guam and the neighboring Northern Marianas Islands (CNMI), requested by Black, that called for federalizing immigration laws on the islands, a move that might have jeopardized the influx of cheap labor to CNMI and Abramoff's $1.6 million lobbying contract with its local government. Abramoff learned of the report from John Ashcroft's then-chief of staff, David Ayres, whom he hosted at a Washington Redskins game. "We'll hope that higher ups will take some time to squash this," Abramoff wrote. Sure enough, the report never came out, and the DOJ demoted its author, regional security specialist Robert Meissner.

At the time, Meissner's boss was then-US Attorney for Eastern Virginia, Paul McNulty, who has since risen to become Deputy Attorney General and a key player in Gonzales's embattled DOJ. A longtime Republican operative who served as spokesman for House Republicans during Bill Clinton's impeachment--and never tried a case before becoming US Attorney--McNulty now stands accused of misleading Congress about the reasons for the eight US Attorneys' dismissals.

Meissner discussed his risk-assessment report with McNulty on multiple occasions and told several colleagues he believed McNulty helped suppress the report and curtail his career. "Bob told me he thought McNulty had everything to do with it," says one colleague of Meissner's in the Bush Administration with knowledge on Guam matters. Says another colleague, "McNulty was kind of the fireman at Justice. He was the guy trying to run around and put a lid on things that could become political, especially with Abramoff."

Also interesting to note that Justice Department official Monica Goodling was prosecuting low level cases out of McNulty's US attorney's office in Alexandria VA in 2004. McNulty has reportedly in recent communications with Judiciary committee member Sen. Chuck Schumer blamed his false testimony to Congress on Goodling, who has invoked her Fifth Amendment rights to avoid testifying before the committee. McNulty's boss Gonzales is taking a similar tack, blaming any of his misstatements on his fired chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, set to testify Thursday. One wonders if the DAG has metaphorically fixed some parking tickets for some relevant folks on the Hill in his time, and if he's not owed some favors.

Posted by Laura at March 29, 2007 12:01 AM